Ted Cruz: A crusader declines to admit defeat

In the end, the federal government opened back up, Obamacare stayed funded and Republicans took a beating in the polls.

But in the final hours of the fiscal crisis, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was resolute and firm, declining to admit defeat and instead chastising the “Washington establishment” for waving the white flag on the health care law.

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Cruz, the chief crusader against the president’s signature domestic policy achievement, repeatedly defended his ambitions to shred Obamacare — long viewed as a fruitless battle as long as Democrats controlled the Senate and President Barack Obama occupied the White House.

And Cruz made sure to take one more poke at fellow Senate Republicans, who — in recent weeks — made no secret of their frustration toward him as the shutdown dragged on and a default seemed imminent.

“In particular, we saw real division among Senate Republicans,” Cruz told reporters on Wednesday. “That was unfortunate. I would point out that had Senate Republicans united and supported House Republicans, the outcome of this I believe would’ve been very, very different.”

Indeed, the senator and potential 2016 presidential contender’s crusade has riven the GOP, helped instigate the first federal government shutdown in 17 years and overshadowed Obamacare’s bumpy rollout that began Oct. 1. The GOP took a hammering in public polls — Gallup said Oct. 9 the Republican Party’s favorability rating collapsed to an all-time low of 28 percent.

That has led to questions about what Cruz gained out of this fight and whether it was worth it — for Republicans, and for him personally. Although his relationships with his GOP Senate colleagues might be at an all-time low, Cruz’s national profile has been enhanced.

More people nationwide now know who Cruz is, particularly following his 21-hour anti-Obamacare marathon speech on the Senate floor last month that galvanized grass-roots conservatives. According to Gallup figures released Oct. 10, 62 percent of Americans have an opinion of the senator — 20 percentage points higher compared with numbers from June. But his net favorability was down 16 points, according to the poll.

The influential Senate freshman described the grass-roots uprising against Obamacare as “remarkable” and praised the House for taking a “courageous stand” in its fight against the health care law, which Cruz called a “profile in courage.” He insisted to reporters that there will be future opportunities to revisit the Obamacare fight, while declining to elaborate.

“If the American people continue to rise up, I believe the House will continue to listen to the American people,” Cruz said. “I hope that in time, the Senate begins to listen to the American people.”

Cruz’s colleagues were reluctant to directly criticize him on Wednesday as lawmakers neared the end of a federal government shutdown in its 16th day and a resolution that would lift the nation’s debt limit. Several GOP senators deflected specific questions about Cruz’s influence in the fiscal fight.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who memorably sparred with Cruz on the Senate floor last month over the ACA defunding strategy, declined on Wednesday to comment on the Texan specifically but added: “I do wish we had focused on fiscal solvency as our goal.”

“I think if that’s what we focus on, we have a chance to be successful and have a fruitful discussion,” Corker said of cutting government spending. “If it’s about something that is totally unachievable, then we may end up in exactly the same place.”

When asked Wednesday what the Republican Party gained from the shutdown fight, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) quipped: “Someone would have to explain that to me.”

”I’ve expressed my deep distress throughout this process,” McCain said. “I’ve said from the beginning that I knew how this was going to end … we weren’t going to defund Obamacare.”

Rep. Peter King of New York — one of the Texas senator’s biggest GOP critics on Capitol Hill — said Cruz got “nothing” out of his anti-Obamacare battle.

“Probably some campaign contributions,” King said. “That’s about it.”

Cruz did rake in the cash, ringing up nearly $800,000 in the third quarter through his joint fundraising committee, according to Federal Election Commission records. His overall haul for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 was $1.19 million, according to multiple reports.

Both Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, Cruz’s compatriot in the anti-Obamacare fight, spoke up at the closed-door party meeting on Wednesday morning at which leaders unveiled the details of the agreement. The two senators said they would not object to swift consideration of the deal but said little otherwise, according to sources.

Lee kept a much lower profile on Wednesday. He did not immediately issue a statement on the agreement negotiated between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and he was barely spotted by reporters roaming Capitol Hill. He delivered a floor speech early Wednesday evening, saying “it’s always worth it to do the right thing.”

“Fighting against an abusive government in defense of protecting the individual rights of the American people is always the right thing,” Lee said. “Some say we shouldn’t have fought because we couldn’t win, but this country wasn’t built by fighting only when victory was absolutely certain.”

Criticism of Cruz also came courtesy of the Houston Chronicle, a large home-state newspaper which lamented in an editorial that Cruz has been “part of the problem” whereas his predecessor, former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), would not have been.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who sided with Cruz on a key procedural vote in the Obamacare-shutdown fight in September, acknowledged Wednesday that there had been an “unfortunate series of events in some ways” over the past several weeks.

“But I do think the Republican Party has demonstrated that it’s committed to altering Obamacare and it’s committed to improving our financial situation of the republic, and the president steadfastly refused both,” added Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. “So it’s pretty clarifying of where each person stood.”

Other stalwart conservatives, like Cruz, were defiant that their attack against the health care law was not in vain — despite losing the battle over ripping it apart in the government funding fight.

“Absolutely, it’s worth it,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) told reporters on Wednesday. “What we did is fought the right fight.”